Chapter Text
Denki was really regretting taking that 8am lecture right about now. He was not, in fact, ‘built different’ despite what he’d convinced himself of when signing up for the class.
Very much not built different, judging by the way he was stumbling out of his dorms still half-asleep and hauling ass across campus like he was livestock and the chupacabra was on his ass to get there on time.
Narrowly missing the few other people out and about at this hour; monsters. Who in their right minds works out before at least noon? Even Katsuki didn’t work out this early and that’s saying something because the only thing that man takes more seriously than working out is chemistry, and the man was a certified prodigy.
…He takes back the narrowly.
“Oh fuck dude I’m so sorry, I honestly didn’t see you there! I was in a such a rush to make it to my eight am that’s supposed to have this super strict professor and-”
The blue-haired guy just kept looking up at Denki in dazed shock, coffee soaking into the stranger’s sleeveless workout-tee and dripping from his glasses.
“-I was just really worried about making a bad first impression especially since I'm not the greatest at painting, in general.” something in his sentence must’ve finally caught the prone man's attention as he shook off the dazed look (and some coffee...yikes) and shot to his feet.
“I find it highly unlikely that you expect to actually make a good impression on said professor when you can’t even manage your time properly enough to make it to class on time without rushing. Not to mention that atrocious outfit -”
Jeez, what was wrong with this guy? Was the stick up his ass wedged too tight or what. It was just an accident, what right does this rando have to judge him when he probably wasn’t looking either! What if Denki was a star student and he was just having an off day, what then? Huh, asshole?
“-and you're obviously not paying enough attention to your surroundings considering you slammed right into me when I was obviously taking the right side of the walking path-”
“Listen dude just, let me repay you for your coffee or something; I really have to run or you’re going to be the reason I'm late.” Denki rifles through his bag for something to write on since Glasses only continued to gape at him instead of helping. Finally finding an old take out napkin and a highlighter at the bottom of his bag, he proceeded to hurriedly scribble his number down and hand it to the man before once again sprinting towards the art wing.
The good news? he made it to class not too winded from his mad dash across campus. (Shout out to Katsuki for dragging his ass out running at least once weekly.)
The bad news? He was fifteen minutes late.
“Well how kind of you to join us mister…” the teacher looked at him over his wire-rimmed glasses expectantly.
“Kaminari uhh, Kaminari Denki that is.”
“Well why don’t you have a seat Kaminari, since you obviously are so excited to join us today.” his professor swept a tweed jacket covered arm across the room indicating the many empty seats. Slinking into one at the back and burying his shame next to his (now coffee stained) jacket at the bottom of his bag, Denki breathed a silent sigh of relief that the professor didn’t just throw him out.
“As I was saying before I was interrupted,” The man shot a meaningful glance in his direction.
“I’m professor Yamada Hizashi, I’ll be your painting teacher for the next semester. This class mainly focuses on acrylic, but we will take some time out of our schedule to touch on other types of painting and their techniques sporadically as the semester wears on.” Huh, Denki thought it was going to be purely acrylic. Maybe he should start listening to Katsuki’s advice and read the syllabus ahead of time... Nah, that’s too much work; He’s honestly lucky he managed to train himself to check his school email by the time he graduated highschool; better stop before he gets ahead of himself.
“Since the art department just recently received a generous grant, we will be providing paints for you all to use. However, if you wish to bring and use your own, by all means do so.” Oh yeah! Denki had heard the rumors about that donation; according to most of the gossip floating around campus the Todoroki heir had donated a huge amount of funds to the art department to spite his father. (something about saying his brother's art degree was useless?)
Denki wasn’t really sure if he believed that explanation but regardless, he was just grateful his broke ass wouldn’t be setting aside money from his already strict budget to pay for paints monthly at best, bi-weekly at worst.
Maybe he should pass on a small thank you to the Todoroki kid. He's pretty sure he’s heard Katsuki complain about some ‘damn Half-n-Half bastard’ in his Biochemistry class, so that's at least one guaranteed way to get the gift to him.
Nah, he’s sure the guy doesn’t need some rando art student trying to gift him things anyways; he’s seen the amount of love letters and gifts the bichromatic guy hands off or throws out near the campus mess hall.
Not that he’s going to complain about that either, those chocolates were damn good and free.
“And I expect you all to partner yourselves up efficiently to work on starting the semester's first big project, especially considering there’s only a few of you in this class.” Professor Yamada gave a small dismissive gesture and moved to situate himself behind his desk... That was covered in retro movie posters and koreamon stickers??
God this was supposed to be the strict professor? It took Denki more than a few seconds to break eye contact with the small plushie parakeet settled on the edge of the desk if he's honest with himself; Only looking up when a shadow descends over his table.
Shooting a quick look up he catches the eye level atrocity parading around as a t-shirt. A faded retro depiction of all smite in primary colors written over in a horribly wonky 80’s style font that read all snite plastered on the front.
“What the fuck is that all smite monstrosity and why is it so addicting to look at?” Fuck, Denki was going to delete his own speaking privileges forever.
“Wait no, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to say that out loud it’s just uhhh-” Denki rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “An interesting fashion choice, haha.”
He was definitely not fooling anyone though, especially not with that pathetic laugh.
“No, no, you’re fine. Honestly, I'm more surprised no one else has said anything to me up until this point,” came the nervous reply from the stranger. “So uhh, do you wanna be partners for this big semester project or not because I totally understand if you didn'twanttooralready-”
Catching the (surprisingly cute) guy’s eyes, Denki gave a simple smile and a nod; relieved he didn’t have to awkwardly beg to be someone's partner for a project again. The last time he’d done that it took almost all of class to get Jiro to agree to partner up with him.
Gesturing for the fashion disaster to sit in the empty seat next to him, Denki reached down to pull his sketchbook from his bag.
“So I’m Denki Kaminari, nice to meet you future partner in crime.” holding out his hand, he let a cheshire grin spread across his face as the freckled man shook it. “I look forward to fucking things up with you greenie, now that you can’t get rid of me.”
“It’s Midoriya Izuku actually! Not greenie,” he gestured to himself “ I can see where you’d get that assumption.”
“Midori as in green? That’s got to be some kind of joke.” Midori shot him a glare trying and failing to hide his smile.
“No, unfortunately it’s real;my mother even has the papers to prove it, I asked.”
Denki let a laugh bubble out of his throat at that. Oh, he liked this one.
“Oh so you’re the whole package, funny and cute, huh? Your mother must be so proud.”
“She is, actually. I wonder if your mother knows her son is a walking disaster and a shameless flirt.” Denki cracked a full on grin at that.
“Where do you think i got it from?” Both him and Midoriya started all out giggling at that.
After taking a few minutes to let out their giggles, they finally sobered up and tried to focus. Now sitting straight up, Denki leaned over and tapped Midoriya’s notebook.”So what's the project on, nerd?” Midoriya just stared at him in amused disbelief.
“You didn’t hear a single thing he said that whole time did you?”
“Not one thing, besides his name that is.” Shaking his head ruefully, Midoriya flipped to a page titled ‘semester one project’ in big bold letters at the top.
“So basically, it’s an accumulative project of both the smaller projects we do in class and one separate collaborative work, hence the groups.” midoriya gestured between them and the rest of the class. “The collaborative work is supposed to be a demonstration of both of our best talents, presented in a coherent series of works on a topic of which professor Yamada will assign us.”
Denki nodded signifying for him to continue explaining.
“The project is expected to have at least one acrylic element and must showcase at least 3 of the techniques we’re going to learn in class.”
Denki let a small sigh out at that. Midoriya shot him a wry look, but continued. “ Our group will be expected to present all the cumulative works in an exhibit; the collaborative projects will be presented on a separate day in front of the class.”
Midoriya snapped his notebook closed. “So yea that’s all the guidelines we have for now!”
“Seems kinda vague to me” Denki huffed out. Honestly, he probably could have written the thing himself even with missing 90% of the lecture.
“Oh stop pouting, if you’re that concerned just ask him for clarification”
“Yea, great idea! Just let me ask the professor, whose class I was late for this morning, if you remember, for clarification on a project he assigned, in a lecture that presumably cleared up any concerns surrounding it, great idea! Why didn’t I think of that.” Kaminair drawled sarcastically.
“C’mon it can’t be that bad. Besides we have to go get assigned our topic anyways.” Midoriya leant over the table to pull Denki up out of his seat to start the
treacherous
trek to Professor Yamada's desk.